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We have been reading about a lot of rogue software targeting Mac users – but its now time for Firefox users to be very careful.

A new scareware detects your user-string from your browser and if you are using Firefox, it will display a fake alert stating that a security scan is in process, with a button recommending that you Start Protection.If you click on the Start Protection. button, it will proceed to install a rogue antivirus software on your Windows computer.

Firefox does NOT include a virus scanner, so should you see such an alert, you know what to do! Simply close the browser and make it a point to not visit the website where you may have seen this alert, reports Sophos.

If you use Internet Explorer, you may get the regular Computer folder dialog box which appears to be running a system scan inside your IE.

I guess we are going to be seeing more and more of such ways to steal money from people. Cybercriminals will use such scareware tactics to scare people into downloading malicious software onto their computers and/or pay for a fake rogue software. This is something we all need to take care of.

Time is running out for customers still leveraging Windows Vista plus the first Service Pack released by Microsoft.

Windows Vista SP1 has less than a couple of months of life left in it, support-wise. This because, Vista SP1 will reach end of support on July 12, 2011.
The best course of action for users is to make sure to upgrade as soon as possible, or at least start planning for the jump to a more recent release of Windows.

At this point in time customers have two options at their disposal, only one of which does not require them to actually change the operating system, namely moving to the second upgrade released for Vista.

“From that date onward, Microsoft will no longer provide support or free security updates for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). In order to stay secure and continue support you must upgrade to Service Pack 2 (SP2),” revealed a member of the Microsoft Small Business team.

In addition to moving to Vista SP2, Windows 7 is also available as an upgrade alternative, and of course, one that’s far superior to its predecessor.

Microsoft is currently hard at work on the next version of the Windows client, but those on Vista SP1 should not expect for the successor of Windows 7 to come out before dumping Vista SP1.

Security researchers from browsing security firm Trusteer warn that an older, but relatively obscure, piece of malware has been modified for financial fraud.

The trojan, which the firm dubs Sunspot, is currently detected by only 9 out of the 42 antivirus engines available on Virus Total.

Its infection rate is on par with that of SpyEye and ZeuS in some regions and there have already been confirmed fraud loses associated with it.

Despite having existed for some time, this is a modern and very sophisticated piece of malware. It comes with all the features expected of a banking trojan.

This includes the ability to execute man-in-the-browser attacks like web injections, page grabbing, key-logging and screenshot taking

It can infect both 32 and 64-bit Windows installations and can hook into Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, which makes it comparable to other financial fraud trojans.

Trusteer researchers were able to decrypt its configuration and found out that it received instructions to grab account balance figures, last login date and other information from a victim’s account, as well as ask them for additional financial and personal details.